Life among the Palestinians

A Palestinian man holds prayer beads as his family gathers inside their damaged home, which police said was targeted in an Israeli air strike, in Gaza City July 17, 2014. Israeli shelling killed four Palestinian boys on a Gaza beach, an incident the military called tragic, and Israel and Hamas said they would cease attacks for five hours for a humanitarian truce requested by the United Nations. Palestinian militants fired more than 130 rockets into Israel on the ninth day of a war in which Israeli attacks have killed 216 Palestinians. Most of the casualties were civilians, health officials in Gaza said. In Israel, a civilian has been killed by one of more than 1,000 Palestinian rockets fired and more than half a dozen people have been wounded.